Belt keeper for utility belts

ABSTRACT

A belt keeper for securing a duty belt to a garment is disclosed. The belt keeper has a fastener tab on the inside surface so that the belt keeper can be detachably attached to the fastener strip on the inside of the duty belt. The fastener tab is flexibly attached to the belt keeper so that the belt keeper can readily allow its user to secure the duty belt to the garment belt, and keep the belt keeper in its position even after disengagement. In another embodiment, the belt keeper has a flexibly attached clamp on the inside of the belt keeper. The clamp can be detachably attached to the duty belt, so that the duty belt can be readily secured to the garment belt, while facilitating the belt keeper to maintain its position on the duty belt upon disengagement. In yet another embodiment, the clamp is a dual clamp, where one clamp is attached to the inside surface of the belt keeper and the other clamp can be detachably attached to the duty belt.

RELATED FIELD

The present invention relates to belts and more particularly relates to duty or utility belts worn by law enforcement, military, security and industrial personnel.

ART BACKGROUND

It has become quite common for law enforcement, military, security and industrial personnel with gear attachments to wear a duty belt, or a utility belt, to carry their gear, such as pistols, pepper spray, batons, handcuffs, flash lights, ammo, tools etc. The belt, commonly referred to as the “Sam Brown Belt,” is usually made of heavy-duty leather in a basketweave pattern, or made of plain heavy-duty nylon. The duty belt or utility belt (hereinafter “duty belt”) is typically worn by the users in addition to the garment belt on their pants. Ideally, the duty belt should distribute the weight of the gear evenly around the waist. However, as the users, e.g. police officers, begin carrying more and more gear, the collective weight tends to force the duty belt downward from the ideal waist-level position. This displacement ends up causing confusion and delay, sometimes with fatal consequences, as the officer may not be able to draw his or her weapon in a critical moment.

To keep the duty belt in its place, some have used cross straps, which connect the front and back of the duty belt over the wearer's shoulder. Others have used a set of belt keepers, which are small heavy-duty nylon straps with snap-on buttons to wrap around both the duty belt and the officer's garment belt. FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram showing one conventional belt keeper 10 for fastening a duty belt 12 to the officer's garment belt 26. After the duty belt is securely fastened to the garment belt by the belt keepers, the officer can readily reach his weapon or other gear (not shown), when needed. The conventional belt keepers, while widely used by law enforcement and military personnel, still present some undesirable features to their users.

To utilize the belt keepers 10, an officer usually first puts on the duty belt, which already has all the gear attached thereto, around his garment belt at the waist level. Then the officer places belt keepers at the open spots around the duty belt, so that the belt keepers can tie both the garment belt and duty belt together when the belt keepers' buttons are snapped together. When the officer goes off-duty, the belt keepers have to be removed from the garment belt, one by one. To keep the belt keepers from being misplaced, the officer usually keeps them buttoned up around the duty belt. However, when the officer goes on duty again, he has to go through the whole routine; sometimes the officer has to painstakingly “fish around” for the belt keepers as they tend to shift away from the desired positions. If the belt keepers are not in their preferred positions, as they seldom are, the officer ends up wasting valuable time and being late for “roll call.”

No matter how the officers keep their belt keepers after-shift, it is always very time-consuming when they have to put their belt keepers back on before-shift. The task becomes even more challenging for the belt keepers to be placed on the backside of the officer, especially if the officer has a wide build or limited flexibility. Since each officer has a different build or different placement preference, it is virtually impossible for the vendors to supply the duty belts with fixed belt keepers.

Therefore, it is desirable to have the belt keepers maintain the same designated or desired positions on the duty belt on or off duty, once the optimal position has been established by the officer.

It is also desirable to have the belt keepers be adjustable and flexible, so that they can readily secure the duty belt to the garment belt.

It is further desirable to be able to quickly attach and detach the belt keepers even when they are positioned at the backside of the duty belt.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

A belt keeper for securing a duty belt to a garment is disclosed. The belt keeper has a fastener tab on the inside surface so that the belt keeper can be detachably attached to the fastener strip on the inside of the duty belt. The fastener tab is flexibly attached to the belt keeper so that the belt keeper can readily allow its user to secure the duty belt to the garment belt, and keep the belt keeper in its position even after disengagement. In another embodiment, the belt keeper has a flexibly attached clamp on the inside of the belt keeper. The clamp can be detachably attached to the duty belt, so that the duty belt can be readily secured to the garment belt, while facilitating the belt keeper to maintain its position on the duty belt upon disengagement. In yet another embodiment, the clamp is a dual clamp, where one clamp is attached to the inside surface of the belt keeper and the other clamp can be detachably attached to the duty belt.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified diagram showing one conventional belt keeper 10 for fastening a duty belt 12 to the garment belt 26.

FIG. 2 (a)-(c) illustrate an exemplary belt keeper 22 for securing a duty belt 20 to a garment belt 26 in one embodiment in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 3 (a)-(c) illustrate exemplary belt keepers 22 which are flexibly and detachably engaged to the duty belt 20 through the loop fastener strip 21 on the inside surface of the duty belt and hook fastener tab 23 on the belt keeper 22.

FIG. 4 illustrates another embodiment of the belt keeper 40 in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A belt keeper for convenient attachment of a utility belt to a garment belt is disclosed. The belt keeper in accordance with the present invention allows the users to quickly secure their utility belt to their garment belt, while ensuring that the belt keepers are not misplaced after the duty belt is disengaged from the garment belt. Also, the belt keepers in accordance with the present invention obviate the need for repositioning between gear on the duty belt with each use.

Reference is first directed to FIG. 2 (a)-(c), where an exemplary belt keeper 22 for securing a duty belt 20 to a garment belt 26 in one embodiment in accordance with the present invention is illustrated. The belt keeper 22 has a hook fastener tab 23 attached to its inside in contact with the inside of the duty belt 20. The belt keeper 22 has a pair of snap-on buttons for closing the belt keeper 22. Additional closure methods such as Velcro, plastic buckles or quick release are also available in place of the snap-on buttons. The duty belt 20 has a loop fastener strip 21 on the inside surface for the belt keeper's hook fastener tab 23 to attach to. As can be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the “hook and loop fasteners” are commonly referred as the Velcro®-brand fasteners, although other kinds of hook and loop fasteners are also available. Also, the fastener strip 21 may be implemented with multiple segments around the duty belt, instead of one continuous strip. It should be pointed out that the “inside” of the duty belt is intended to mean the side facing the wearer's body, whereas the “inside” of the belt keeper means the side to be in contact with the duty belt.

As shown in FIG. 2 (a), one end of the hook fastener tab 23 can be attached to the loop fastener strip 21 on the duty belt 20, while the other end of the tab 23 is flexibly attached to inside of the belt keeper 22. In other words, one end of the tab 23 is sewn to the inside of the belt keeper while the other end remains freely movable. To fasten the garment belt and duty belt 20 together, the officer only needs to fit the garment belt in-between the hook fastener tab 23 and the belt keeper 22. The belt keeper 22 can then be wrapped around and snapped closed, by pressing the buttons on both ends of the belt keeper 22, as illustrated in FIG. 5. The hook fastener tab 23 and loop fastener strip 21 allow the belt keeper 22 to remain in the same position on the duty belt 20 even after the duty belt is removed from the garment belt. As such, the belt keepers can be easily located when the officer has to put on and remove the duty belt 20 over the garment belt 26 again. Also, the “hook and loop” fasteners 21, 23 enable the officer to adjust the positions of the belt keepers 22 on the duty belt 20 according to his preference or physical dimensions. Once the positions are set, the belt keepers 22 would significantly reduce the time and effort the officer needs to locate and close the belt keepers 22. Additionally, the belt keepers 22 would remain fixed to their positions on the duty belt after disengagement, thanks to the hook and loop fasteners 21, 23.

FIG. 2 (b) shows a belt keeper 24 in another embodiment in accordance with the present invention. Here, the belt keeper 24 has a flexible clamp 25, or clasp, positioned on the inside surface of the belt keeper 24. The clamp 25, which functions in a similar way to the loop and hook fasteners 21, 23 shown in FIG. 2 (a), allows the belt keeper 24 to easily wrap around the garment belt 26, while maintaining its position on the duty belt 20 upon disengagement. The clamp 25 is preferably flexibly attached to the inside of the belt keeper 24 by a staple or some stitching. By “flexibly attached,” it is meant that the belt keeper 24 can still be moved or opened to receive the garment belt, although its position on the duty belt 20 is fixed.

It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other means of flexibly and detachably engaging the belt keepers to the duty belt are available based on the teaching of the present invention. They are flexible so that they can readily accommodate the garment belt. They are also detachable so that their positions can be adjusted and fixed on the duty belt.

Reference is now directed to FIG. 3 (a)-(c), where the exemplary belt keepers 22 are shown flexibly and detachably engaged to the inside of the duty belt 20 through the loop fastener strip 21 and their hook fastener tabs 23. Here, the duty belt is also equipped with a baton 31, a handcuffs pouch 32 and a pepper spray pouch 33, the weight of which as a whole would have contributed to the aforementioned downward slide.

Reference is turned to FIG. 4, where another embodiment of the belt keeper 40 in accordance with the present invention is illustrated. The belt keeper 40 has a dual-clamp 42 attached to the inside of the belt keeper 40. The first part of the dual-clamp 42, identified as No. 1, clamps onto the belt keeper 40. The second part of the dual-clamp 42, identified as No. 2, clamps onto the duty belt 20. Note that, even with the dual-clamp 42, the belt keeper 40 can still be flexibly tilted outward to receive the garment belt. As such, the dual-clamp 42 provides the aforementioned flexible and yet detachable engagement to the belt keeper 40 and duty belt 20. It should be noted that the dual-clamp 42 can also be used with the conventional, “old-style,” belt keepers.

Although the invention is described herein with reference to the preferred embodiment, one skilled in the art will readily appreciate that other applications may be substituted for those set forth herein without departing from the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the invention should only be limited by the claims included below. 

1. A belt keeper and duty belt for securely fastening the duty belt to a garment belt, comprising: a fastener tab; at least one belt keeper, said belt keeper having one end of said fastener tab attached to the inside of the belt keeper; a fastener strip on the inside of said duty belt, for detachable attachment by the other end of said fastener tab.
 2. The belt keeper and duty belt of claim 1, wherein said one end of said fastener tab is flexibly attached to a predetermined position on the inside of said belt keeper, such that said belt keeper can accommodate said garment belt.
 3. The belt keeper and duty belt of claim 2, wherein said fastener strip and said fastener tab are hook and loop fasteners.
 4. The belt keeper and duty belt of claim 2, wherein said fastener strip and said fastener tab are Velcro fasteners.
 5. The belt keeper and duty belt of claim 3, wherein another end of said fastener tab is freely movable.
 6. An apparatus for securely and conveniently fastening a duty belt to a garment belt, comprising: a clamp having a pair of clamping prongs joined at a base; at least one belt keeper, said belt keeper having said base flexibly attached to a predetermined position on the inside of said belt keeper, said clamp being controllably and releasably clamped to said duty belt, such that said belt keeper accommodates said garment belt when in use.
 7. The belt keeper and duty belt of claim 6, wherein said clamp is a dual clamp having a first clamp as said base and a second clamp, said first clamp is releasably and flexibly attached to the inside of said belt keeper, said second clamp is detachably and releasably attached to said duty belt.
 8. A belt keeper for securely and releasably attaching a duty belt to a garment belt, comprising: a strip of heavy-duty material, said strip having two ends; closure means on both ends of said strip; an inside strip having one end being flexibly attached to a predetermined position on the inside of said strip such that said strip and said inside strip can accommodate said garment belt, the other end of said inside strip having a fastener for releasable attachment to said duty belt.
 9. The belt keeper of claim 8, wherein said heavy-material is nylon.
 10. The belt keeper of claim 8, further comprising a fastener strip on the inside of said duty belt for releasable attachment by said inside strip.
 11. The belt keeper of claim 10, wherein said fastener and fastener strip are hook and loop fasteners.
 12. The belt keeper of claim 10, wherein said closure means are one of Velcro, plastic buckles and quick-release buckles.
 13. A clamp for flexibly attaching a belt keeper to a duty belt, comprising: a first clamp having a pair of prongs resiliently joined at a base, the body of said first clamp being positioned generally in a first axis, adapted for clamping to said belt keeper; a second clamp having a pair of prongs resiliently joined at a base, the body of said second clamp being positioned generally in a second axis, perpendicular to said first axis, adapted for clamping to said duty belt, wherein one of said prongs of said first clamp is mounted on the base of said second clamp.
 14. The clamp of claim 13, wherein the length of said prongs of said first clamp is generally the same as the width of said base of said second clamp.
 15. The clamp of claim 14, further comprising a belt keeper, wherein a predetermined position on said belt keeper is adapted to receive said first clamp. 